FBI witness details bribery in Benci case

By
Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman, The Trentonian

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

HAMILTON — The FBI’s cooperating witness in the Mayor John Bencivengo corruption trial on Tuesday said she gave thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions and bribed former Hamilton school board members, including Joy Tozzi, who now works as the business administrator of Robbinsville’s municipal government.

Maria Louise “Marliese” Ljuba testified she bribed Tozzi with $10,000 from 2005 to 2007 and said she took Tozzi on vacations, shopping trips and also used her to make straw contributions to political campaigns.

Ljuba said she also wheeled $10,000 in bribes to former Hamilton school board members Robert Warney and Anthony Coluccio. Warney, who resigned earlier this year from his six-figure job in Bencivengo’s administration, has admitted he received $10,000 in illegal payments to vote in favor of extending Ljuba’s insurance brokerage contract in 2006.

Coluccio on Tuesday denied receiving any corrupt payments.

“That is totally untrue,” Coluccio said. “I’m appalled and upset she would even say that.”

Tozzi on Tuesday didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

Robbinsville Mayor David Fried on Tuesday declined to comment on Tozzi, saying he wasn’t at liberty to speak on personnel matters.

Robbinsville Township Attorney Mark Roselli on Tuesday said he “can’t comment too much on anything, because it could potentially be a personnel matter.” But with Tozzi being implicated in Ljuba’s testimony, “Certainly the township is not going to close its eyes to what may have been stated at court,” Roselli said. “Depending on what the testimony was, certainly the township will have to consider it and follow up on it and determine what course of action needs to be taken, if any.”

The Hamilton school board’s March 2006 move to extend Ljuba’s Allen Associates brokerage contract was approved in a 6-2 vote, with an abstention from Tozzi. Coluccio and Warney were among the six board members who voted for that contract.

Ljuba also said she gave $12,000 to $14,000 in straw contributions to the 2011 school board campaign slate of Patricia “Patty” Del Giudice, Stephanie Pratico and Giuseppe “Joe” Malagrino.

Coluccio, who was the campaign treasurer for the Del Giudice, Pratico and Malagrino slate, on Tuesday said he “didn’t know any money was coming directly from her (Ljuba) at all.”

Ljuba in her testimony said she funneled money to Hamilton school board and municipal election campaigns. Ljuba said she gave money to Joy Tozzi and former Hamilton school board member Chris Tozzi for those two to contribute to election campaigns.

Public records from the state Election Law Enforcement Commission show Joy Tozzi and her husband Anthony together contributed a collective $1,000 on March 22, 2011, to the slate of Del Giudice, Pratico and Malagrino, all of whom were victors in the April 2011 school board election.

Prior to that $1,000 contribution, Joy Tozzi had never contributed more than $40 to a New Jersey election campaign, according to ELEC records. The records also show that Joy Tozzi’s brother-in-law, Chris Tozzi, a Hamilton firefighter, contributed $1,000 to the victorious Del Giudice slate on March 22, 2011.

Chris Tozzi on Tuesday was unavailable for comment.

Ljuba in her testimony said she gave $6,500 to Del Giudice, but she didn’t specify if it was given to Del Giudice specifically or if it was given to Del Giudice’s campaign.

“Never at any time did that woman give me personally a dime,” Malagrino said of Ljuba on Tuesday. “Who did she give it to?”

Malagrino, a retired state corrections officer, said Ljuba on “many occasions” offered to meet with him but that he “avoided her,” adding, “I don’t even know her.”

In Tuesday’s court action, it was revealed that Pratico is the board member who Bencivengo and Ljuba allegedly plotted to “get rid of” because Pratico asked questions about putting the school district’s brokerage contract out for a public bid, as opposed to it being a no-bid contract to Ljuba.

The indictment against Bencivengo says the mayor wanted to get Pratico to run for New Jersey Assembly in order to get her off the school board.

Del Giudice, Pratico and Malagrino were all sworn into their elected positions by Bencivengo after they won the 2011 school board election.

Ljuba said she gave, through Joy Tozzi, about $11,000 for the Hamilton Township Council campaign of Tom Goodwin, Dennis Pone and Dave Kenny in 2004 or 2005.

“Our campaign never received that money,” Kenny said on Tuesday. “If what Ljuba says is true, that money never made it to our campaign. Ljuba never got a contract with Hamilton Township; she got it with the school board. I don’t think she ever bid for a contract with Hamilton Township.”

Goodwin, Kenny and Pone were elected to their first terms in November 2005 and were re-elected to second terms in 2009. Goodwin resigned in 2010 to serve as an appointed state senator. Kenny and Pone are still Hamilton councilmen.

Kenny said Ljuba and Joy Tozzi had “no involvement” in the 2005 campaign. On Ljuba, Kenny said, “We never had anything to do with this woman, and I don’t even really know her that well.”

When Ljuba was the broker for the Hamilton Township School District, she earned as much as $600,000 off of commissions from her dealings with the school district alone. Ljuba was also the health insurance broker for Robbinsville.

Ljuba resigned from the Allen Associates brokerage firm effective July 1 and no longer does business with the Hamilton school board or Robbinsville municipal government.